kids and the farm

These were actually taken before our move (hence the house in shambles in the background) but I think this kid is so cute I couldn't resist posting these pics! Tanner loves using baby sign and you can almost understand him saying things like "I want that" (it's more like "i-ahn-at"). He usually only calls me by name when he wants me to do something for him, "MA MA MA MA!" He quickly figured out the advantage to having a Grandma around to pick him up when "MA MA MA MA" won't. Tanner loves soft tickles on his face and neck and he will lay all over your lap so his neck is exposed for you to tickle. But this little snuggler absolutely refuses to give kisses! I ask him for a kiss and he shakes his head, turns away and laughs. Stinker.

One of Hailey's new neighbor friends had a birthday party at the Thanksgiving Point petting farm. Our kids are kind of sissies when it comes to animals, but after feeding enough sheep, goats and chickens, they were finally warmed up to the idea of riding the ponies.

Did we survive the summer?

Umm, just barely. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

But I'll back up a bit. Allison brought Jeremiah and Eliza at the end of July for some much needed family visiting.

We had fun reading silly books . . .

more fun at the sprinkler park . . .

fun eating eating popsicles . . .

and even more fun playing dress-ups.

We love having family come visit! Thanks for making the treck on your own Allison -- soggy car seat and all!

We managed to squeeze Brandon's birthday in for a bit more fun before packing up.

This, by the way, was a fabulous Reeses Peanutbutter Cup cheese cake. Oh yeah. It was pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. But, ah, I didn't realize we were down to one candle. At least he didn't have to blow out a match.


The rest of the month was a blur of packing, only to be interupted with Tanner coming down with croup 3 days before the move. I spent the night before loading up the truck with Tanner in the hospital (next door to the crazy man yelling about his "sever pain" and his "need" for morphine) so he could get a breathing treatment. Hailey came down with it the next day, but didn't get nearly as sick. But needless to say, all the babysitting I had arranged for the last couple days had to be canceled. I only survived with the help of the Relief Society; a.k.a. my really good friends.

The morning of the move Hailey disappeared for a while. We found her in her room for one last snuggle there with her blanky. It was pretty bitter-sweet. It's been hard to leave our home and ward there.

We broke up our drive out to Utah by going up to Navoo (but our car decided to take a break in Missouri so we could meet a nice mechanic who gave us some gospel cd's). Brandon and I traded off so we could both go to a temple session while we were there. It was a nice break.

Then back on the road . . .

I brought some sliced cheese for Tanner to eat on the trip. The cooler was right next to him and apparently I hadn't put it away very well one time. I turned around to see him chowin' down on about 5 slices of cheese. He was pretty pleased with himself and I couldn't stop laughing!

We made it to Denver to see Grammie Sherri and take a much need break from being in the car.

I don't know, do you think he was a little worn out? I know I was.

But here we are in Utah at last! The weather has been great and the leaves are changing. We went up to "walk on the Utah mountains," as Hailey puts it, this past week. It was just gorgeous! I didn't realize just how much I missed this kind of nature. Wow!

So we are done with the "school" portion of optometry school in Memphis. Brandon is here for 2 externships, equaling 8 months until graduation. We're staying with my parents in Bluffdale, who just moved back to Utah also. It's great to be so close to family and see extended family that we haven't seen in years; some since our wedding. Which reminds me, we just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last month.

And to top it all off, BYU is having a great season and we can watch it all on my partents wide screen, HDtv. What more could we ask for? (Well, I guess a decent job opportunity for Brandon would be nice too.)